Overhead door supporting hinge mechanism



Aug, 27, 1968 w. H. sToKEs 3,393,485

OVERHEAD DooR SUPPORTING mmm MECHANISM Filed April 4, 1966 y 5Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTO? WILL/AM H. STOKE'S Affom ey Aug. 27, 1968 w. H.sToKE 3,398,485

OVERHEAD DOOR SUPPORTING HINGE MECHANISM Filed April 4, 1966 5Sheets-Sheet 2 Aug. 27, 1968 w. H. STOKES OVERHEAD DOOR SUPPORTING HINGEMECHANISM 5 Sheets-Sheet Filed April 4', 196e United States Patent O3,398,485 4 OVERHEAD DOOR SUPPORTING HINGE MECHANISM v William H.Stokes, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to United States Steel Corporation, acorporation of Delaware Filed Apr. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 539,694 4 Claims.(Cl. 49-202) ABSTRACT oF THE DISCLOSURE Mechanism includes a verticaltrack on the two opposed side edges of a rcontainer door; a roll-mountedcarriage disposed for movement along each of the tracks; and two rigidlinks each pivotally connected by one end to one of the carriages and byits other end to an adjacent vertical member of the doorway frame.Mechanism permits uptilting of the door away from the doorway `to anoverhead open position atop the container.

The present invention relates generally to enclosure doors and morespecifically to an improved Ihinge mechanism for an uptilting overheadsliding door especially suitable for supporting a door in the door frameof a cargo cage container or the like.

Portable wire-mesh cubicles, commonly known as cargo cage containers,are extensively used by freight haulers for transportin-gless-than-carload or less-thantruckload shipments. The use of cargo cagecontainers is advantageous in that a number of such odd lot shipmentscan be loaded into one container which then can be handled as a singleunit during subsequent loading and unloading of a carrier. Thisarrangement greatly facilitates and speeds up the handling ofless-than-carload and less-than-truckload shipments.

It is necessary to provide cargo cage containers with doors and dooropenings of sufficient area to permit easy loading and unloading ofarticles from the containers.l Prior to my invention, two types of doorswere generally used on cargo cage containers. One was the lift-olf typewhich completely detached from the cargo' cage when the latter wasbein-g loaded or unloaded. Such complete de' tachability was undesirablein that the doors, when removed, were frequently lost or damaged.

Another door commonly used was the split swing-type. this type of doorwas not fully satisfactory because it required an excessive area in thevicinity of the cargo cage to permit opening of thev door and toaccommodate the two sections of the door fwhich moved outwardly from thecage and remained so when the door was opened. This feature createdconsiderable difficulty in congested loading areas. g v

It is, accordingly, the primary object of my invention to provide animproved hinge mechanism whereby an overhead door can be mounted in thedoor opening of an enclosure in such a manner that the door in verticalposition closes the door opening but can be opened by simultaneouslylifting and pivotin-g the door about the upper edge of the door openingand then sliding it along the top of the enclosure to a horizontalposition out of the way of the door opening.

As a corollary to the above, it is another object of my invention toprovide an improved hinge mechanism as set forth by the above objectwhich maintains the door attached to the enclosure when the door isopen.

It is a more specialized object of my invention to provide an improvedhinge mechanism as set forth by the above statements of object whichincludes a vertical track extending along opposed sides of the door andfacing the adjacent vertical edges of the door opening when the door isin vertical position closing the opening, an

ice

elongated carriage including a bar and rollers journaled on each end ofthe bar mounted for limited movement along each of the tracks, a rigidlink ypivotally connected by one end with each of the door openingvertical members .adjacent the upper end thereof, the other end of eachof the links being pivotally connected with one of the carriage barsintermediate the ends thereof, and latching means carried by the dooradapted to detachably engage a horizontal member of the door openingframe to lock the door in vertical position lclosing the opening.

These and other objects 'will become more apparent after referring tothe following specification and attached drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a cargo cage container having adoor mounted by means of the hinge mechanism of the invention;

FIGURE 2 is an end elevational view of the cargo cage of FIGURE 1showing the door, in solid lines, in an intermediate position and, inbroken lines, in fully open position;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged partial View showing the details of the hingemechanism of the invention on the right side of the door, as viewed inFIGURE l;

- FIGURE 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line IV-IV ofFIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional View taken along the line V-Vof FIGURE 1.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, reference character 2designates generally a wheeled cargo cage container which is lformedwith a substantially rectangular frame 4 including a bottom peripheralportion 6 of box construction, and a vertical door opening 8 formed inone side. A rigid door 10 is mounted in the door opening 8 by means ofthe hinge mechanism of the invention, designated generally by referencenumeral 12. The walls, top and bottom of the container are made up ofrigid wire-mesh 14 welded to the frame 4.

' A pair of spaced vertical tubular posts 16 of rectangular crosssection extending between the top and bottom peripheral portions of theframe 4 form the sides of door opening 8. The top peripheral portion ofthe frame 4 forming the top of the door opening may be an angle section18, as best shown in FIGURE 5. The sill of the door opening `t3 isformed by the bottom peripheral portion 6 extending between the posts16.

The door 10 includes a rigid rectangular frame consisting ofhorizontally extending top and Ibottom members 20 and 22, respectively,and vertical side members 24 extending lbetween members 20 and 22 ateach end thereof. Wire-mesh 26 is Welded to the frame of the Y, door andspans the area enclosed by the horizontal and vertical frame members.

The structure thus far :described is conventional with the exception ofthe hinge mechanism 12 of the invention which will now be described indetail.

Each of the vertical side members 24 of the frame of the door 10 is ofchannel `section land each is disposed with its open side directedlaterally of the -door and faces a vertical post 16 of the door opening81 when the door is in closed position, as best `shown in FIGURES 3 and4. The channel interior of each of the vertical side members 24 forms atrack 28 extending along its length in which an elongated carriage orbar 30 is mounted for axial movement by means of rollers 32 journaled inand projecting from opposite ends of the carriage.

A pivot block 34, having a pin 36 rotatable therein and projecting fromone side thereof, is fixedly contained in leach of the posts 16 adjacentthe upper yend thereof with its pin projecting into the door opening. Apivot member 38, having a pin 40 rotatable therein and projecting fromone end thereof, is fixedly mounted on each of the carriages 30intermediate the ends thereof with its pin projecting into the dooropening. On each side of the door 10, a rigid pivot link 42 is xedlyattached by one end to the pin 36 in the post 16 and at its other end tothe pin 40 carried by the carriage 30. Thus, the rotatable pins 36 and40 adapt both ends of the link for pivoting movement.

As best shown in FIGURES 1 and 5, a pair of spaced toggle-clamp latchmechanisms 44 are connnected to the top horizontal member 20 of the doorframe. Each of the toggle-clamp latches includes a substantially T shapeplate 46 |welded along its top to bottom surface of the horizontalmember 20. An L -shape -latch arm 48 is pivotally connected as at 50 tothe plate 46 adjacent the bottom thereof. An operating arm 52 formedwith a clevis 54 at one end is pivotally connected by its clevis portionto the plate 46 beneath its upper surface as at 56. The operating arm ispivotally connected with the 'bottom of the latch arm 48 by means of alink 58. As shown in FIG- URE 5, each of the toggle-clamp latchmechanisms 44 secures the upper portion of the door to the frame 4 inclosed position by clamping the upper horizontal member of the doorframe to the horizontally extending angle section 18 at the top of thedoor opening.

The vertical side members 24 of the -door frame are each provided with alaterally extending stop member 60 near the bottom thereof which isadapted to engage the adjacent vertical post 16 of the frame of the dooropening so as to prevent the door from swinging inwardly of the dooropening. A pair of spaced anges 61 is welded to and projects downwardlyfrom the bottom horizontal member 22 of the `door frame to engage theinside of the sill-forming portion 6 to prevent the door from swingingoutwardly of the door Opening when the door is in vertical closedposition.

As best shown in FIGURE 3, a bolt 62 is fitted in the upper portion ofeach of the vertical side members 24 of the door fra-me projectinginwardly of the track 28 to serve as a stop member to limit the downwardmovement of the door 10 relative to the carriages 30. Movement of thedoor 10 in the opposite direction relative to the carriages is limitedby a closed end, as at 64, on each of the vertical side members 24formed by the junction of horizontal member 22 therewith.

In operation, to move the door 10 from closed position, as shown inFIGURE 1, to open position, as 'shown in broken lines in FIGURE 2, theupper portion of the door is unlatched from the frame 4 by manipulationof the operating arms 52 of the latch mechanism 44, and the upperportion of the door is allowed to move a slight distance away from theangle section 18. The door is then lifted to disengage the anges 61 fromthe container frame portion 6 after which the doo-r is simultaneouslyuptilted and lifted to pivot it about :an angle section 18. This` causesthe pivot links 42 to pivot upwardly toward a horizontal position andthe carriages 30 to move longitudinally toward the bottom of the door,as shown by solid lines in FIGURE 2. The door is continued to be movedin this manner until-.it reaches a horizontal position on top of thecontainer 2, as shown by broken lines in FIGURE 2. When the door is inthis fully opened position, the carriages 30 are at the bottoms of`tracks 28 and the pivot links 42 have pivoted 180 from their originalpositions.

Although I have shown the hinge mechanism of my invention ,as utilizedwith a cargo cage container, it: will be noted that it can be utilizedwith equally beneficial results for mounting ydoors on other types ofenclosures as well. Y

While I have shown but one embodiment of my invention, it will beapparent that other adaptations and modications may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the following claims.

I claim:

1. In an enclosure having a frame providing a door opening, said frameincluding a vertical member at each side of said door opening :and ahorizontal member at the top thereof extending between said verticalmembers,

a rigid door for said opening having a door body adapted in verticalposition to close said opening and adapted to swing bodily to asubstantially overhead position atop said enclosure, the improvementtherewith of a hinge mechanism mounting said door body in said dooropening comprising a vertical track extending along opposed sides ofsaid door body and facing the respective door opening vertical memberadjacent thereto when said door body is in said vertical position:closing `said opening, an elongated carriage mounted for longitudinalmovement along eachv of said tracks, and a rigid link pivotallyconnected by one en-d with each of said door opening vertical members:adjacent the upper end thereof, the other end of each of said linksbeing pivotally connected withA one of said elongated carriagesinter-mediate the ends thereof.

2. Apparatus as defined Iby claim 1 characterized by latching meanscarried by said door body adapted to detachably engage said horizontalmember and lock said door body in vertical position closing saidopening.

3. Apparatus as defined by claim 1 characterized by each of saidcarriages including a bar, and a roller journaled in each end of saidbar, Isaid bars being disposed one on each -side of said door body withsaid rollers fitted in the tracks on said -door body for movementtherealong.

4. Apparatus as dened by claim 1 characterized by stop means in each ofsaid tracks adjacent the ends thereof adapted to limit the movement ofsaid carriagesthere along.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,557,614 6/1951 Schafer 49-260 XFOREIGN PATENTS 534,177 9/ 1931 Germany. 642,053 8/ 1948 Great Britain.1,257,782 2/ 1961 France.

KENNETH DOWNEY, Primary Examiner'.

